Premeditated Myrtle: Myrtle Hardcastle Mystery, Book 1
By Mary Eisenhart,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Lively Victorian mystery with girl detective and governess.
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Based on 1 parent review
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What's the Story?
PREMEDITATED MYRTLE takes us to the village of Swinburne, England in 1893, where 12-year-old Myrtle Hardcastle, child of an absentminded prosecutor and a now-deceased woman doctor, is a relentless investigator of everything that interests her, and also quick to jump to conclusions that may not be quite right. Her governess, Miss Judson, is more than a match for her, though, steering her along good paths and teaching her to ask important questions. So when Myrtle's observations tell her not only that there's something wrong at the house next door, but also that the occupant's been murdered -- and it turns out to be true -- she should be pretty proud. But she's not, because the neighbor's elderly gardener, and her own good friend, confesses to the crime, so she needs to put things to rights.
Is It Any Good?
This is a lively romp with appealing characters, melodramatic situations, and many perils. A Victorian 12-year-old's fascination with Sherlock Holmes and "penny dreadfuls" (sensational stories sold for a penny) serves her well in as she discovers a murder right next door. Myrtle is quick to jump to conclusions, but her wise and beloved governess, Miss Judson, is there to keep her on the right path, and more than once she discovers that things, and people, are not at all what they she first thought. It's especially fun having the young detective herself narrate Premeditated Myrtle and address the reader directly:
"Dear Reader, surely I need not enumerate the dangers posed by my present course of action; they are drilled into every girl from the cradle, by every possible means. I knew all about Spring-Heel'd Jack, the fied who stalked the pages of the penny dreadfuls. Not to mention Jack the Ripper, the fiend who'd stalked the real-life streets of London only a few years ago. There were body snatchers and burkers, press gangs waiting to drug the unsuspecting and ship them off to sea, and all manner of Deviants,ready to Defile the Innocent.I was not certain what that last meant, precisely, except that it was practically guaranteed to occur the instant the Young Lady of Quality touched her bootheel to the moonlit earth."
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about stories involving kid detectives. How does Premeditated Myrtle compare with other young sleuths you know about? Do you think the time and place in which they're doing their detecting makes a difference in what they do and how they do it?
Myrtle has to walk into the village to get access to a telephone because her father refuses to get one (it's 1893). How might modern technology have made this story different?
Do you think it's possible for mean girls to have a change of heart and mend their ways, even becoming true friends to their former victims?
Book Details
- Author: Elizabeth C. Bunce
- Genre: Mystery
- Topics: Great Girl Role Models , History , Science and Nature
- Book type: Fiction
- Publisher: Algonquin Young Readers
- Publication date: October 6, 2020
- Publisher's recommended age(s): 10 - 18
- Number of pages: 368
- Available on: Nook, Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
- Last updated: November 20, 2020
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